Decades of memories at aquatic center
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MARSHALL -- The opening of a new pool -- The Splash -- comes after the closing down of an old one.
Sunday will be the Marshall Aquatic Center’s last day of operation, ending generations of swimming and meeting up with friends.
Preston Stensrud, the city of Marshall Parks and Recreation superintendent, the aquatic center first opened in 1938. He said there was a two-story bathhouse and the city band used to play on top.
In 1974, the two-story bathhouse was taken down and replaced with the present the diving well, Stensrud said. The city built a new bathhouse in its place, which still stands today. In 1994, more additions were made, with a waterslide and mushroom for the young children in the wading pool that shot water from its top.
As with all buildings, time starts to show its toll, and renovations needed to keep the pool running. In the 1980s, the city worked on gutter renovations. In 2004, the floor was resurfaced in white. But Stensrud said no matter how many changes the city makes, the structural shell is still the same.
Stensrud is excited to open The Splash, and feels it’s up to the standards of what the community needs and deserves.
"It (the Marshall aquatic center) has served the community for lots and lots of years," Stensrud said. "If we can get this new pool to last as long--or even longer--than this one, I would say that’s a big success."
Another facility worker at the MAC is Cora Maxwell, the newest assistant manager at the MAC and soon to be one of the first at The Splash. The aquatic center has been a part of her life since she was a baby. Her earliest memory was her parents convincing her to jump off the high dive at 6 years old.
"I got rewarded an ice cream cookie sandwich for going down," Maxwell said.
Ten years later, in her freshman year of high school, she joined the aquatic center as a lifeguard. Soon after, she would get a job as the assistant manager, working on schedules and giving out regular drills to the lifeguards, including live practice emergencies the guards always have to be ready for.
Maxwell said Working at the pool is a different experience than going as a patron. Her favorite part so far has been the connections she's formed, be it with co-workers, patrons and especially the regulars.
“There’s a lot of people that come every single day, and I’ve really formed a connection with them, especially some of the older patrons that come and do water walking or lap swim,” Maxwell said.
One of Maxwell’s favorites -- who she mentioned many times -- is Janine Isenberg, who’s been coming to the pool since 1980. On her first visit at 19, the place looked a little different. The 25-foot tall flag that towers above the diving boards, the water slide and the mushroom in the middle of the wading pool were nowhere to be seen. Instead, an old seal statue took its place that shot water out of its mouth.
"Kids used to have fun climbing it," Isenberg said. "They would fall off, but they had fun."
A few years later, Isenberg married and had children. She took the children every day to aquatic center. When her children had children, she would bring her grandkids to the center.
Nearly every aspect of the pool has changed in the 40 years Isenberg has been going to the pool. She recalls the parents at the wading pool holding onto strings attached to the life jackets of children, so they would stay near them. A few yards away, the sandpit that’s still there used to include a large toy river children would take buckets of water where they would fill them.
Their children would also go to every youth night -- a weekly event at the pool where only children from fourth grade to eighth grade are allowed to swim from 6 to 8 p.m. Isenberg remembers the lifeguards and youths taking pop cans and rolling them down the slides.
"Everyone would get a pop at the end," Isenberg said.
Isenberg still comes to the pool nearly every day, usually sitting in the sun, always with sunscreen on. She says sitting out helps with her muscles and nerves.
"I love the new place, but I’ve been going for about 30 years," Isenberg said. "My friends have been teasing me, saying they want to buy the pool."
"It was a very fun outdoorsy thing that we all loved," Isenberg said. "We all enjoyed being outside with friends -- and the bright blue sky -- we all enjoyed that. It’s the third generation from me, I can see that with other families too."
Youths also shared memories of their own at the aquatic center. Titus Zeug and Henry Karlsted are two close friends who try to show up as much as they can, whenever they aren’t at soccer practice.
Sometimes they show up alone, sometimes with each other. But whenever they go, they stay for as long as they can -- coming right when it opens and staying until the lifeguards kick them out at closing time.
"We swim around," said Zeug. "The first thing I do is go down the slide."
After the slide, Zeug and Karlsted do everything from jumping off the diving boards to swimming around to playing a game called “giant.” According to Karlsted, the rules say that one child stands on the wall with his back turned to several others. Everyone else has to try and get away from the wall while the giant has to figure out when the youths leave and jump in after them, relying on sound to know when they left.
One memory they both shared is a failed trick on the diving board. They said neither of them are afraid of messing up, but sometimes they do. Karlsted tried backflip and his back was red for weeks. Zeug said he tried a front flip off the high dive.
"Do not do a front flip off the high, ” Zeug warned. "I had scars in my throat. I overlapped into a belly flop.”
Both youths are left feeling a little bittersweet about the pool’s closure. On one hand, they’re excited about the new pool, and already have ideas to prank their friends on the lazy river. But on the other hand, they’re going to miss the place they've gone to nearly every day.
"I’m sad because I have a lot of memories here," said Karlsted, "But then, we’re gonna create new memories."
Zeug then jumped in, giving Karlsted a high five.